208 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[March 



precedent to put bees out at night, with the ther- 

 mometer below zero. I had studied the situation 

 and resolved to run the risk, basing my decision 

 upon the assumption that the bees, if put out at 

 night, would naturally go into their hives and 

 become quiet by daylight. The result proved the 

 correctness of my thoughts; the weather remained 

 cold for three weeks, when they got a chance to fly. 

 My bees were saved, but very much reduced in 

 numbers. F. Crathorne. 



Bethlehem, Iowa. 



[For American Bee Journal.J 



How to Oatch Absconding Swarms. 



Dear Journal: — While recalling the various 

 plans for hunting bees, it occurred to me to tell our 

 brother bee-keepers of a very simple method to 

 catch absconding swarms. The idea is new to me, 

 and though some of your readers may know and 

 practice this method, I have never seen it described 

 in any bee journal. 



The idea was imparted to me by a neighboring 

 bee-keeper, who showed me two fine swarms he had 

 thus obtained during the past summer. I propose 

 to adopt the plan next season, and know that a 

 great many of your readers will, also, if they should 

 chance to read this, for it is a sure thing and not 

 patented. 



Should you enter a tract of woodland in a bee- 

 keeping neighborhood, in the heighth of the swarm- 

 ing season, you will observe many bees searching 

 closely around the trunks of the larger trees. 

 When they find a cavity suitable for a future habi- 

 tation, they return to the hive and are ready to 

 guide the new swarm to their new home, if they 

 succeed in getting away from the apiary, and we 

 know that many do. Now, we want those swarms, 

 and how are we to get them? Why, simply thus: 

 Take a few old bee gums or box hives, nail bottoms 

 to them, have a few small holes in the sides for 

 entrances, and hang them up in a few of the large 

 trees. If an absconding swarm enters the forest it 

 is almost sure to enter one of your hives, which can 

 be removed to your apiary at your leisure. 



Don't leave any large holes in your decoy hive, 

 if you do, squirrels are sure to enter also. My 

 neighbor overlooked this matter, and found in one 

 of his hives not only a swarm of bees, but also a 

 nest of squirrels, all living harmoniously together. 



Scientific. 



Hartford, Washington Co., N. Y. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Travel in Italy. 



(CONTINUED.) 



Out of twenty-two queens that we had to take 

 in the place where we were, we had only taken 

 seventeen and rejected one when the sun set. I 

 was of opinion that we should stop our work, 

 but Sartori said that we should take the other four, 

 as they were the last we had in this part of the 

 country. These four queens were not in the same 

 apiary. We had to travel about half a mile across 

 a valley. When we arrived it was almost dark, 

 and after we had taken one queen it was night. 



Sartori asked for a candle, and there he stood, 

 holding the light over the bees, and silently taking 

 off the bees as they stung him on the hands. This 

 search lasted for about an hour and a half, and he- 

 found only two queens. His hands were covered 

 with stings. "I have been in worse places," said 

 he, as we were coming back. " I have been stung 

 once almost to death, and since that time I am 

 venom -proof." His father, who inhabits Tyrol, 

 has always kept bees above the door of his house, 

 like they do in Italy. Sartori, at the age of fifteen, 

 was fond of looking at the bees and handling them. 

 He made many experiments with them, so that 

 after a year of bungling he had destroyed or killed 

 the twelve hives which composed his father's apiary. 

 His father bought bees again, but forbade his son 

 to touch them. The latter, to satisfy his passion, 

 bought two hives with his pin-money. One day, 

 having climbed on a ladder, he tried to take one of 

 his hives down, he slided it on the board to bring it 

 on his shoulder, but as it was heavier than he had 

 expected to find it, it slipped faster than he de- 

 sired, and fell on him covering his head down to 

 his shoulders. Thousands of bees immediately 

 stung him. He descended slowly from the ladder, 

 hastily rid himself of the hive, and plunged his 

 head in a barrel of cold water. ' ' I was taken by 

 fever," said he, "and it lasted two weeks, but for 

 three months I could not look at my hives without 

 a shudder." This accident, far from disgusting 

 him with bee culture, stimulated him ; for, after 

 this, bee stings caused him very little pain. 



The next day our host waked us at two o'clock in 

 the morning. Having slept only three hours, I 

 looked at my watch and said, " I wonder whether 

 he is not mistaken, for what can we do at this time 

 of night?" "Oh," said Sartori, "we have to 

 travel two leagues this morning, and it will take 

 us four hours. So it did, for we arrived at seven 

 o'clock at the first apiary that we were to visit. 



The road that we had to travel followed the 

 course of a large creek then dry. On each side 

 arose large mountains, covered with divers crops 

 and vineyards in the lower part, and with pine and 

 chestnut groves wherever the naked rock was not 

 to be seen. From distance to distance, on the 

 highest peaks, I perceived the ruins of an old castle 

 or the spire of a church, whose bell called the 

 peasants to their daily labor. Most generally the 

 churches were placed near the castles, the priests 

 near the lords, who thus have but little trouble to 

 go to the house of worship, whilst the peasants, 

 who live in the lower parts of the mountain, have 

 to work on Sunday if they wish to go to church, 

 for it is really a work to scale such a mountain 

 when the weather is hot and the path slippery. 



On each side of the road we could see peasants 

 plowing the ground with oxen. " Horses are not 

 strong enough to plow our lands," said our driver. 

 I was convinced of the truth of this assertion when 

 I saw their plows. The plow that Cincinnatus left 

 when he went to Rome as a dictator, was not more 

 primitive. Fancy a beam, over six feet long, ter- 

 minated at one end by a wooden curve, on the end 

 of which is fastened the point of an iron spear. 

 Above this spear is a kind of rough wooden shovel. 

 A single handle, three yards long and sharp at its 

 extremity, is fastened to all this. The whole is 



